The operation of the mass spectrometry facility will be continued to provide the biochemical and biomedical community with conventional or high resolution mass spectra on either individual compounds or simple to complex mixtures for indentification or structure determination of compounds of biological origin. Both electron impact and field desorption ionization methods are available and will be used as appropriate. Particular expertise is available in the areas of amino acids, peptides, proteins, nucleosides, carbohydrates, lipids, alkaloids, and molecules labelled with stable isotopes. Mixtures will be analyzed with a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer (GC-MS) system. Collaborative projects with at least four local medical centers involving the diagnosis and inestigation of inborn errors of metabolism will be continued. It is planned to improve the efficiency and capability of the Facility by the development of routine techniques for the recording and measuring of field desorption mass spectra on photographic plates, to design a laser beam system for field desorption ionization using emitter materials other than activated tungsten wire and to construct a micro-computer interface for the control of the low resolution mass spectrometer of the GC-MS system to facilitate quantitation by multiple-ion monitoring. An important consequence of these activities is the training of individuals, from B.S. chemists to postdoctoral scientists in the determination and interpretation of mass spectra and applicability of these techniques to their field of research.